North Decatur Road Could Be Narrowed to Two Lanes
Decatur Metro | August 27, 2013Michael points out this AJC blurb from way back on Aug 5th...
‘Road diet’ considered for North Decatur Road
A “road diet” is one possibility under consideration for revamping North Decatur Road from Clairmont Road to Willivee Drive, which traverses both DeKalb County and Decatur.
On June 21, 2012 Jianchang Wu was killed by a car while crossing on foot at the Landover Drive intersection, and bicyclist Paul Taylor was killed by a truck near Willivee Drive April 30, 2012.
A “diet” for this heavily-traveled stretch (19,000 cars daily, though only those two fatalities) would include cutting North Decatur from four to two lanes, adding sidewalks and bikes lanes on each side.
Bill Banks for the AJC
Also, the Medlock Area Neighborhood Association website reported this morning on preparations for a Road Safety Audit being conducted on North Decatur between Church and Clairmont, who’s recommendations COULD end up including “road diet measures, sidewalk improvements, additional crosswalks, and repaving N. Decatur.”
Stay tuned.
I wish they would do this from Clairmont to Scott. I’m so tired of almost getting rear-ended every time I try to turn off of N. Decatur onto my street. I’ve even figured out other ways to go home when I have my young children in the car because of so many close calls with people speeding through.
Yes! I do the same thing. I could not be happier at the prospect of a road diet!!
Yes! I live 1 street off N. Decatur and turn on my signal almost back at Landover and just pray all the way to Superior that I am not rear-ended by someone who feels where they have to go is more important than where I have to go.
While traffic can be awful on N Decatur already and taking this down to one lane each way will surely worsen the delay, I am all for this change.
I live on N. Superior. When coming from Clairmont, I turn on my signal at Clairmont circle and slow way down ahead of time. I’m often glad that I have a Honda CRV with it’s turn signal mounted up high where people can see it.
I drive a Suburban and people still act like they don’t see me stopping to turn. They see us, they just can’t stand to slow down for those of us who live in the neighborhood. Perhaps worse traffic will cause people to stop coming through.
Agreed; the opposite of “build it and they will come”…
And they are going to put a Wal-Mart and other development on that road? Can’t see that working with a road diet.
Or a possible fuqua development going in where scott blvd baptist church is…..
I’m sure this road diet will outrage many people with cars, but this is great news for a bicyclist like myself!
“Many people with cars” = just about everyone. As noted in the blurb, 19,000 cars pass through this stretch daily.
I love cycling too, but we do not need bicycle lanes everywhere, especially when it will choke traffic and alternative, bike-friendly routes are available, as is the case here. One can just as easily travel the residential streets in Medlock and avoid this stretch of N. Decatur entirely. That is what I did for years on my bike commute. Even with a bike lane, N. Decatur will be less pleasant to ride than the adjacent alternatives.
IMO this plan will create endless traffic jams for no reason.
I think it’s worth noting that this is something being pushed by property owners surrounding this stretch of road. To them (and I’m not one of them), it’s an effort to improve both the quality of the environment and the level of safety for those who live, come and go within it.
19,000 cars notwithstanding, it’s not unreasonable to suggest that the needs of those passing through with no allegiance whatsoever to the neighborhood should not be the primary consideration in road design. Yes, they must be factored in (as should all modes of travel), and they have every right to pass through on a public right of way, but the character of that stretch should ultimately be up to those who live there.
Atlanta turned a lot of great streets into car-sewers whose only function was whisking people somewhere else. If we have opportunity to make incremental improvements in the name of keeping people here in town, we should.
+1
Well said. Walking on the existing N Decatur Rd sidewalks will give you grey hairs because there’s practically no buffer between sidewalk and road (cars). Try walking it with a pet on leash or a baby if you want to amp up the dread.
People who live close by want the option of safely walking to shops or to visit neighbors without having to brave a gauntlet. There are shuttles serving the area, and they are in place to encourage pedestrian use of this corridor.
As to bikes, the detour through the Medlock neighborhood is certainly safer. But back to pedestrians, it’s easier to take a mile+ detour on a bike than on foot.
Does anyone here have any info on why the ghost chair and bike memorials were removed?
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.557402954320181.1073741852.370732792987199&type=1
I can’t argue with that, but I am not sure improving the sidewalks requires removing 2 entire lanes from the road. Maybe it does, but it seems far from obvious to me.
Scott, I think your post begs the question: is the proposal, in fact, an improvement? I’m not a certified traffic engineer licensed to post my .02 to a message board or anything, but it seems obvious that reducing throughput capacity by 50% will worsen traffic on this busy road. That might well be OK if the benefits outweigh the costs, but I see very little (if any) benefit from bikes lanes here. And, as noted, while I have no objection to pedestrian improvements, it does not seem as though they require hacking the road down to 2 lanes. (If so, I could certainly change my opinion.)
Good question, DEM, and one that depends on the objective (and I don’t know the degree to which anyone’s worked to develop consensus around any particular objective other than a loosely-defined sense of “safety”). If the goal is maximizing traffic throughput (as it’s been for many years) then, no, as detailed here this probably wouldn’t qualify as an improvement. At least in the short run, until people started varying their routes and diffusing traffic somewhat, the road would probably see greater congestion.
However, if the objective is “livability,” or a more humane environment, or safety, or increased use of other travel modes then yes, it would most likely serve as an improvement.
Then part of the answer is NOT big box developments like the ones on the table now. Can’t build sprawling suburban developments in town while cutting down the size of the roads. The residents of these areas really will get screwed by smaller lanes and more developments. Most of this is unincorporated DeKalb, right? From a policy perspective, I truly hate this county system with huge swaths of areas where residents are basically at the whims of county development priorities and have so little local control. It is just not fair to the people in the communities.
Are you suggesting it will be better when this part of the county is in the city of Lakeside, or Briarcliff, or Red Devil, or annexed into Decatur? Let the fighting for the best commercial property in your pet city begin!
Sorry folks, many of these comments sound nice, but the truth is there are not many other options for traveling through the area. North Decatur is one of the only options going northeast from downtown and even getting around this quadrant of the metro area. Going to two lanes is the equivalent of cutting off an arm. Three lanes, with the center lane being a turn lane, would be a better option. And, no – this isn’t just about those contiguous neighborhoods. I live in Decatur and depend on North Decatur Rd. to get to doctor appointments and many other necessities of daily life. That road is not the personal possession of certain neighborhoods. It is a critical artery in the city and slimming down to two lanes will hurt locals as well as commuters.
As a resident of this area who only uses a car for transportation, I want to see less traffic. Cars are still the majority in my opinion. The area is already congested enough as it is!
less traffic as in less traffic congestion or less cars?
As the wise graffiti on Dekalb Ave once said:
“Don’t like traffic?”
“You ARE traffic”
Nooooooooooo this will only force more people to choose Scott Blvd, turn right on Clairmont and screw up that horrible intersection at North Decatur and Clairmont even more.
How does creating even more congestion make sense? My response to it would be to avoid the businesses I normally frequent in that area and go somewhere else during periods of peak traffic.
I think this would turn North Decatur into a parking lot at rush hour. If they narrow North Decatur and the Wal-Mart development is put in, that would be a huge contradiction. I definitely agree that more crosswalks are needed and I would favor putting a sidewalk on both sides of North Decatur as I believe there’s a sidewalk only on one side in the stretch from the Publix to Scott Blvd.
something definitely needs to be done on that road. the paving is poor shape, the lanes narrow, and people (myself included) drive way too fast on it. as far as bike lanes go, i usually go down desmond and cut through the clairmont campus, but it does add some miles and hills to the route. it doesn’t seem like much in a car, but on a 90 degree summer day on a bike it is significant.
does anyone have data on the number of cars that drive down church every day, at the spot it goes from 2 to 1 lane coming into decatur? i don’t drive that way during the day, so i don’t know what the effect of the narrowing on congestion was.
It adds distance, but hills? The climb up N Decatur towards Publix easily eclipses anything on Desmond.
There is a physiological phenomenon known as “pedaling while terrified” that adds to the perception of incline. Something about how the inner ear that connects to the brainstem, can’t quite remember the mechanism.
But seriously, Desmond is no picnic. But there’s a really easy detour if you veer off Desmond and take Vistamont.
Oh! So THAT is the reason I cannot make it up a hill. Thanks for that
I thought being terrified would make it easier to climb — being scared generates energy, no?
At any rate — and this might be a good thread in itself — what’s the nastiest climb in the Decatur area? I would vote for Vickers in Druid Hills. Not terribly long, but quite steep. It brings the pain for sure.
For runners, my vote is big Kirk Road, heading west and approaching Mimosa Drive.
South Candler at Midway. Lots of traffic and hills in either direction.
Up Coventry on the n side of Scott. Diabolical when running hard
Yep. Superior coming from N Decatur to Scott is hell, too.
I was thinking about my most hated and here’s what I’ve arrived at. There’s a stretch off Briarcliff of several hills (towards Briarcliff leaving Atlanta when you are trying to make it over to Briarcliff). Have you ever done University Ave. or Stillwood? (I think that’s the one) there’s a light before you cross over to The By Way. It’s short but a monster, as soon as you get to the first stopping point you’re literally looking up at the next stretch. I have tried 15 different routes to get around these monster hills but there’s no good alternative that doesn’t add crazy time to your trip. But of course after that, it’s all down hill from there There are also some hills over by Fernbank but I don’t do those on a regular basis and have no idea what the names of those streets are.
Yes – these hills stink, but what makes them worse is that they are part of the Publix Marathon route! Around mile 18 or so… not a good time to have to muscle it up a steep hill!
Yes, that’s mile 18 behind the QT? I was sort of in a daze by that point. This year i’ll be doing the half on turkey day. My feet have just gotten to grumpy to relive the torture of a full . I’m itching to do a full somewhere really random other than here, like China or the North Pole in the next couple of years, but I hear in Paris they give you wine on the route, so there’s that.
Personally, I’ve never understood the rationale of traveling somewhere for a marathon. While it is nice to have some different scenery while you run, but it doesn’t sound like a good idea to sit on a plane after running 26 miles. I had enough trouble getting up off the couch.
you’ve got the hill on desmond up to clairmont, the hill in the campus up to the cut-through gate, the hill up to the exit gates. give me the two options with the car danger equalized and i’ll take n. decatur any time.
Well if you are including the Clairmont campus hill, maybe, but I thought you were talking Desmond alone. Of course, the traffic danger will never equal out — N. Decatur will always be more dangerous, relatively speaking, if for no other reason than traffic volumes.
I just heard that the County did a new traffic count on N. Decatur Rd. and it is up from their original estimate of 19,000 units per day to around 28,000. That is a big difference. It could be the first count was done when school wasn’t in session.
If N. Decautur is put on a road diet, that might encourage more Emory/CDC employees to use the shuttle. Anything done to N. Decatur should have the intent of DISCOURAGING vehicular traffic and ENCOURAGE pedestrian and bicycle use.
Why just Willivee to Clairmont? Why not take the 2-lane approach all the way to Emory/Clifton Rd.? It’s alrady 2-lane from Clifton to Briarcliff anyway.
The Medlock article also mentions the disappearance of the ghost bike and ghost chair… I wonder what the motivation of that is.
This nashing of teeth and whinning reminds me of when the Alliance to Improve Emory Village proposed the road diet and roundabout in EV. Ultimately the decision was based upon traffic modeling and that is the essential first step in this case, too. Wait for some empirical evidence instead of deciding you are a qualified traffic engineer simply because you drive through the area.
Exactly. That whole stretch between Clifton and Lullwater is SO much better now. We can only hope that the stretch between Clairmont and Church ever gets destroyed so badly!
IMO the traffic circle in Emory Village is ineffective due to volumes of pedestrians that cause traffic to stop anyway rather than just yielding and merging with other vehicles. Example of one that works is Lullwater and N. Decatur.
It may be inffective for YOU to DRIVE somewhere as QUICKLY as possible. On the other hand, it is VERY EFFECTIVE in helping pedestrians SAFELY cross the road between the village and campus! Of course you don’t have to stop for so many pedestrians at Lullwater – there ARE no pedestrians there!
Well, there’s that.
I agree the roundabout is an improvement, though it is very difficult to navigate. You really have to have your head on a swivel there with all the cars and pedestrians entering at so many different points.
That’s a feature, not a bug.
+10
Monderman!
+1000
When it was a signalized intersection, pedestrains frequently crossed against the traffic signal – simply because the waits were too long and there were multiple streets to cross. If redevelopment was to be encouraged in Emory Village that would atrract more pedestrians and if a pedestrain liability already exisited, it was incumbant to improve the pedestrain saftey. .
The roundabout was built to accomodate high levels of pedestrian traffic, to improve pedestrian safety and reduce congestion. In peak hours the intersection performs better than it did with a signalized intersection. In off-peak hours drivers never have to stop for a multi-phase traffic signal. The Lullwater roundabout hardly serves any pedestrains, but has effectively slowed vehicles as they approach from the west and prevented any additoanl traffic fatalities at the ditch/creek. The road diet and roundabout have gone a long way to tame traffic and protect pedestrians.
If the road capacity for cars is reduced and bike lanes are added, then get out of your car and bike. I support this project.
You say that now, but after pedaling behind a slowpoke like me, you’ll be demanding a double bike lane so you can pass me and get to work on time.
I don’t have an opinion on this particular option just yet but really glad to see this road getting attention. Since the most recent death of the pedestrian I have witnessed 2 accidents at rush hour. One fairly severe and the car was up in someone’s yard. This road is dangerous. And for cyclists, heading towards Clairmont from Melton’s, there are many HUGE potholes that force us out much further than we actually need to be.
This. It is not safe for anyone – cars, cyclists and pedestrians in its current shape. The road is not wide enough to support four lanes of traffic *safely.* I live on N. Decatur inside the city limits and routinely have cars and trucks run up on the curb in front of my house because they can’t fit side by side. See those huge Mack trucks cross over the lines so that they can stay on the road. Last week, I watched a woman sitting on the bench at the bus stop at the corner of N. Superior and N. Decatur (north side) *jump* up out of the way when a speeding truck ran up on the edge of the sidewalk.
The road is always full of potholes because it handles too much and too heavy traffic for its design.
They either need to condemn more property (i.e. mine and my neighbors’ front yards) to widen the road, allow enough spade and include buffer zone and sidewalks on both sides, or the road needs to go back to two lanes. It’s two lanes on the west side of Emory. As someone mentioned upthread, this stretch of road is well-served by Clifton corridor shuttles and MARTA at all hours of the day.
I live on N. Decatur inside the city limits and agree wholeheartedly. Though I don’t *want* to give up more of my yard to the road, I am willing to if it makes it safer and slower.
I had wondered about the number of potholes, but that makes sense. I know there was some significant repaving over the past year but it didn’t seem to make much a difference. I commend you on being open to the idea of loosing some yard space for the safety aspect of this all. Based on everything I read (just here mainly), those on Clairmont are not as willing.
I like that phrase. “car sewer”. That’s going in my lexicon.
Please that note N. Decatur started off as 2 lanes and 4 lanes was a shoe-horning idea that has never worked well, i.e. safely. Please also note 2 numbered Highways : Scott 78 and Clairmont 155 serve as alternate routes if your objective is Clairmont and N. Decatur. These roads were built from day 1 to carry through traffic. N. Decatur was not.
If your destination is the CDC or anywhere along the NE edge of Emory, however, 78 to N. Druid Hills to Clairmont is an alternate route.
It is sadly only a matter of time before the next serious accident or death along N. Decatur, whether bike, pedestrian, or driver. I live right on N. Decatur and my goal is to spend as little time on that car sewer as possible.
I don’t think 78 to N. Druid Hills to Clairemont is a viable alternative for anyone living in the Decatur area. Maybe people driving in from OTP via 285 could take that route but for the rest of us N. Decatur Rd. is the pipeline into Emory & CDC. The only alternate routes I know of involve residential streets which will become much more popular with any shrinking of main thoroughfares.
I run on N Decatur an awful lot with a dog in tow. Yes, the sidewalks are narrow and beat, so is the road. But, I also see westbound traffic backed up virtually the entire stretch b/t Clairmont and Scott in the AM, not quite as bad in the PM Eastbound.
I dont think the Walmart and Mixed Use Development will have a ton of impact on traffic at AM rush-hour — certainly not the Walmart. Emory area continues to grow, MARTA Clifton Corridor stuff is uncertain.
I vote for a 3 lane with middle-reversible lane, but am no traffic engineer. I am sure it increases risk for head-on and begs the question of how do you move from 3 lanes to either 4 or 2 at intersections like Clairmont and Church.
Or more simply, how about a nice repave and then shut the road for large vehicles – say over 8,000 lbs. Wink, wink – the bridge on N Decatur over the culvert can’t handle larger weights…
Is it possible N. Decatur could go to 3 lanes with bike lanes and wider sidewalks? Dekalb Ave operates this way and it works fine, although there are no bike lanes and the sidewalk is only continuous on the north side. It is not perfect, but it’s a heck of a lot better than they have now on N. Decatur!
Not a bad idea. I had never seen reversible lanes before moving to Atlanta, but they seem to work just fine.
I’ve seen several very bad accidents and near-accidents in that switch lane. I refuse to drive in it; it terrifies me. The way they have it labeled is very confusing.
Not to mention the drivers who are not familiar and get in the middle lane to turn left when they don’t have the arrow. Talk about a sitting duck….
I personally know of someone who was killed in the reversible lane on DeKalb Avenue.
I have never heard of that. Very tragic. I drive it part way almost every day and see all kinds of stupid stuff, but have not seen any actual accidents. I sometimes drive down Ponce (speaking of roads that never should have been 4 lanes!) and see the same stupid driving tricks. It’s not just the lanes, it’s the drivers (as if we didn’t all know that).
That’s odd, because I’ve driven Dekalb Ave almost every single weekday for 8 years and have not seen a single accident. Not one.
Maybe it’s because I drive during rush hour, when everyone knows what the deal is. I’ve noticed that driving pretty much anywhere outside of rush hour is more frustrating, as there are many more variations in driver behavior.
Very happy to see this option being considered. It would make that stretch of N Decatur far safer for everyone — pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers.
Hi. I am the City Commissioner for this part of Decatur and want to make a few comments. This is the first I’ve heard about the Ghost Bike (& chair) not being there. I contacted City Manager Peggy Merriss and she checked with Public Works – we do not know anything about why the bike and chair are gone. I do know that some of the neighbors have contacted me about getting that space back (this is before the Ghost Chair was installed) and I have been working with staff to potentially re-position the Ghost Bike in a spot that honors Mr. Taylor (I have not contacted his family yet). But the intention was to do something in the fall.
The AJC article on a possible N. Decatur Road Diet is a bit premature. There was a workshop on this stretch of N. Decatur some weeks ago and a draft report is being written. There will be a public meeting to present the draft on Thursday, Sept. 5th from 5-6 pm at Emory’s School of Public Health (I do not know the room number at this time.) As soon as I find out, I will post to DM. Nothing has been decided.
Thanks for this update!
Since the article came from Bill Banks, I’m not surprised it was premature. Mr Banks, IMO, is not noted for research and facts.
Steve – I’m going to go out on a limb and disagree with you. Bill has had a long career as journalist in Atlanta and now devotes much of his time to covering Decatur. He’s one of very very few people at nearly all important civic meetings as well as sporting events, and he’s been there in the front row for years. He also happens to be the only journalist to provide us with true journalistic coverage of the important issues of the day around here. It’s too bad he’s limited to little blurbs in the AJC. He writes different types of articles for different types of audiences. No matter the forum, he puts in the time to understand what is going on. The man knows how to get to the essence of a story. We’re lucky to have him around.
out on a limb indeed. don’t read here much? respect Steve’s au-THOR-eh-TAYH
[for South Park fans]
That may all be true, but he once referred to something that occurred in 30032 as a “Decatur” incident and all of our property values went down 10% overnight.
Thanks Fred. I drive through this area all the time. I honestly believe there must be some way to improve the traffic issues and safety issues along this stretch of road. Thanks for keeping us informed.
how do the potential street car/light rail plans fit in with N Decatur Rd?
I would support making the southern part of North Decatur from Superior to Clairemont more pedestrian friendly (ie: sidewalks) but not a road diet. This would make the commute to Emory for thousands of workers much more difficult. They pay road taxes too.
A better use of DeKalb and state money, in my opinion, would be to make the stretch of Glenwood Drive, from Columbia to Second Avenue, more pedestrian friendly. When driving in this area, I regularly see pedestrians walking in the roadway because of lack of sidewalks. They don’t pay road taxes but their safety is just as important as those who use North Decatur Road.
There are shuttles from both N. Dekalb Mall and S. Dekalb to Emory.
http://transportation.emory.edu/transportation/cliff/PnR.html
you do realize that people that walk often also own cars and pay property taxes, sales taxes, income taxes… roads are not paid for only by money taken from people that use cars as their sole mode of transportation.
Emory has a shuttle from both N. Dekalb and S. Dekalb mall.
As a fifteen year resident of N Decatur Rd, and recipient of many almost pedestrian and automobile accidents during my time there, here is my 2 cents on what they need to do.
1) Fix the Webster/Powell intersection near Athens pizza. No one knows what to do when they approach it. A roundabout there would be a great option.
2) Force the stop at the N Decatur red light at Publix/Webster going westbound to be further down the hill, and do not allow rights on red onto Webster… everyone on my block has almost been killed in the crosswalk at least once. Idiots turn right on red from the inner lane, not just the outer one.
3) Instead of lowering the number of lanes, they should put speed bumps every 200m on N Decatur Rd. We don’t necessarily need less traffic, but we need the traffic that is there to be a lot slower.
Slow is smooth. I agree, Brian.
oh crazy town, where to begin
Aaaaaaand, WABE just reported a pedestrian hit on North Decatur at Clairmont. Guessing that’s going to slow people’s drive into Emory as much or more than a road diet would…
#humandatapoints
Heard that just as I was reading these comments. Jeez.
Oh no. Hope everyone is alright.
Ultimately, the problem with N Decatur is a symptom of a much bigger issue. We have a major employment center in the middle of a residential area, that does not have a reliable East-West artery to service it.
Emory, CDC and VA are huge employers, and N. Decatur is the only road that provides access to people who live to the East.
Personally, I would love to see the local quality of life improved with a road diet, but this will only improve conditions if traffic can find another route to get to their destination. A MARTA line is not going to happen for 5-10 years at best, so we need to find a way to solve this problem in the near term. And the Clifton shuttle is not going to pick up enough volume either, as it will be stuck in the same traffic.
I think there are two viable options:
1) TopHat Cat’s point to go ahead and expand the right of way to widen the road and add a buffer for pedestrians. Arguably, this could include some calming efforts to keep traffic from going too fast. This takes a residential road and makes it a traffic artery. That’s unfortunate, but is the most practical way to improve the situation.
2) Do the road diet for N. Decatur, but make that contingent on reworking the Scott to Clairmont to Emory route that will get all the traffic off of N. Decatur. I expect this would involve adding a turn lane on Scott, expanding Clairmont to improve traffic management at the Clairmont/N. Decatur intersection.
Arguably, the other reason this is intersection a mess is the mix of commuters, pedestrians and local errand runners. Maybe there is a better way to manage these different uses through better parking and pedestrian layouts?
“Ultimately, the problem with N Decatur is a symptom of a much bigger issue. We have a major employment center in the middle of a residential area, that does not have a reliable East-West artery to service it.”
I would stop you at “in the middle of a residential area” and leave it there. Once you have a major destination within an area surrounded by closed neighborhoods, you have a traffic problem that will never be solved. If N. Decatur were widened to 12 lanes it would attract more traffic and still back up. The problem is essentially that there are no alternate routes. There’s no street grid to distribute the traffic load organically. The surrounding neighborhoods force a single-threaded access system that will only be as effective as its worst bottleneck.
I participated in the Road Safety Audit as a member of the local community. It was sponsored by the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition and Bike Emory and conducted by the Federal Highway Safety Admin. I have no information about what the final recommendations will be, but a Road Diet was discussed. So were improvements to the intersections of N. Decatur with Clairmont and Scott. I would love to see the roadway widened with a bike lane in each direction and sidewalks set back from the street.
The local neighborhood associations are asking the County and City to do five things that would improve safety on N. Decatur at a reasonable cost:
1. Add sidewalk to the South side of N. Decatur
2. Improve the existing sidewalk on the North side, especially at the culvert over the creek.
3. Reduce the speed limit (at least within Decatur city limits) to 25 MPH.
4. Add a traffic signal at Wendan with a crosswalk so that the bus stop is usable in both directions.
5. Repave N. Decatur.
But I have hopes that the Road Safety Audit will include some of the items and more. I look forward to hearing the final report.
there’s talk like this mile strectch of n. decatur is the only viable way to emory from the east side. if you look at a map, there is an alternative. scott to clairmont is barely longer (sure, you get an extra light) and those roads are much better suited to high traffic volumes. maybe leaving n. decatur as is but adding a couple of lights on it would divert some of its traffic onto the scott/clairmont route.
I think it isn’t the distance, it’s the left turn from Clairmont onto N. Decatur that people want to avoid.
i’m sure there’s plenty of reasons why speeding down narrow lanes through a residential area with much higher than average pedestrian vs. car deaths is more convenient for commuters the way things stand right now.
but what i’m saying is there are alternatives. it might mean messing with the clairemont/n. decatur intersection to reflect the increased north-to-westbound traffic/decreased westbound traffic. i don’t advocate shutting down n. decatur overnight and letting folks fend for themselves. i’m just countering the n. decatur is a sacred goose that should be left untouched sentiment.
I agree with you.
I don’t think anyone is arguing to keep N. Decatur as it is. Status quo is simply not acceptable.
That being said, the N Decatur and Clairmont intersection is already overloaded. To shift half of the N Decatur traffic to the Scott to Clairmont to N Decatur route would completely grid lock Clairmont and spill over into Scott. Unless there is some innovative traffic management solution that could streamline the large flow?
And when you consider the increased traffic from Suburban Plaza and Wal-Mart… the demands on N Decatur are only going to expand.
Given a lot of that traffic relates to big employers (CDC, Emory, VA Hospital, DeKalb Medical), I wonder if they are playing along. The timing of shifts/commute schedules is a big variable, no?
Agreed. My understanding is that the hospitals already schedule shifts that don’t align with rush hour.